Newly-formed political party, the United Africans Transformation on Thursday said despite being constantly linked to the International Holiness Pentecost Holiness Church (IPHC) which commands considerable support with millions of reported followers, the UAT is an independent organisation championing service delivery and unity in South Africa.
President of the fledgling political outfit, Seshunkoane Mathabatha, said the question of purported links to the IPHC church keeps hovering around the party, which registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in November last year.
“I would like to strengthen the point that UAT is owned by the people on the ground, not the church. Any person who wants to join the UAT is at liberty, and they are free to do that. Section 15 of the Constitution of South Africa makes it clear that any person can choose any movement of their choice,” said Mathabatha.
“We want to emphasise and stress that the UAT is not for the church but for the community. The UAT is for community members who share a common vision and want to address their basic needs in the communities, irrespective of their spiritual affiliations.”
He said the formation of the UAT was triggered by factors including the “glaring lack of service delivery in the majority of communities, endless service delivery protests across the country, our entire South Africa, high levels of unemployment, particularly amongst the youth, relentless load shedding by Eskom, a critical shortage of medicine in the majority of government health facilities, unabated corruption and nepotism in government institutions, and an unsustainably high level of violent crime, which is predominantly affecting the previously disadvantaged populace”.
“UAT is a radical economic transformation movement that brings together various communities, particularly the previously disadvantaged, to pursue the struggle for full economic transformation and emancipation. So far, the UAT has successfully established the National Task Team (NTT) Provincial Task Teams in five provinces: the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the North West. The remaining four provinces are work in progress, and they will be launched shortly. Our District Task Teams are up and running in all five provinces where the Provincial Task Teams are activated,” said Mathabatha.
“Regarding membership, our books currently indicate 600 000 signed-up members at the time of drafting this media invitation. The UAT is anticipating organising a combined policy and manifesto launch conference, which you will be informed of in the near future.”
Presenting the party’s media remarks in Pretoria, UAT’s deputy national spokesperson, Mighty Mabule, said their members are dismayed by the lack of service delivery for the majority of communities across South Africa, which often manifests in service delivery protests.
“The most commonly cited reason for the protests across South Africa is a lack of service delivery on the part of municipalities. Reports in the media have highlighted communities’ concerns about the slow or non-existent delivery of housing and basic services in their areas. A contributing factor in many cases may be that communities feel excluded from decision-making processes that affect them,” said Mabule.
“Clearly, the channels of communication between municipalities and affected communities must be distorted if residents feel they need to resort to protest action in order to be heard. Problems with ward councillors and ward committees may contribute to the perception that a municipality is not responsive to its community’s needs. The failure on the part of municipalities to adopt effective complaint-handling mechanisms and customer-care strategies has a negative impact on service delivery.”
He said community members are more likely to respond to a municipality that is accountable to them and that takes the time to explain why their needs and service delivery expectations are not met.
“As UAT, we advocate that radical and strong action should be taken to arrest the situation once and for all. We believe that this is achievable and realistic, provided that we have a caring local municipality that is community need-driven,” said Mabule.
National spokesperson of the UAT, Japhter Baloyi, added that the party also advocates for unity among people across Africa.
“I’m sure our name says United Africans Transformation. When you talk about Africans, you are not just talking about South African people. Every one that is an African, regardless of which country they come from, are all Africans. UAT has been formed in South Africa, but we have bigger goals; that is all I can say,” said Baloyi.
The UAT was once led by Abel Tau, former MMC for human settlements in Tshwane who was fired from ActionSA. Tau has since founded a new political party, The Transformation Alliance (TTA).
IOL